Handgun Ban

CHICAGO -- It's not easy to do, but gun-control advocates in San Francisco have come up with an anti-firearms measure that embarrasses even some gun-control advocates. The red-faced ones may realize this one is not likely to work even if it is upheld in court, which it almost certainly will not be. But the pointlessness of the initiative didn't stop San Franciscans from approving it by a hefty majority. Proposition H outlaws the sale, manufacture, transfer and ownership of handguns and ammunition in the city.

While gun rights advocates are understandably pleased about the Supreme Court's decision this week to overturn Chicago's ban on private citizens keeping handguns in their homes, it's far from clear how far this ruling pushes current law. Certainly, it's no surprise in light of the court's decision to strike down a similar Washington, D.C. prohibition on gun ownership two years ago. In essence, the court's conservative majority has merely chosen...

THROUGHOUT his four decades as an elected official, J. Joseph Curran Jr. has remained unafraid to take controversial stands. Witness his call this week for a ban on private handgun ownership to stem the nation's tide of violence.Vicious killing sprees in Littleton, Colo., Atlanta, Los Angeles and Fort Worth persuaded Maryland's three-term attorney general to seek drastic action. He'd like private handgun ownership restricted to law-enforcement officers, legitimate gun collectors and those who need guns for security reasons.

SEATTLE - The annual Northwest Folklife Festival is a throwback to hippie days, a mellow celebration of folk music, grilled salmon and sandals with socks in a city that considers laid-back a point of civic pride. So when Joshua Penaluna, 19, felt a sharp pain in his wrist as two men came at him through the crowd at the festival in May, he assumed he had broken a bone as he fell. "Then I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, he's been shot,' " Penaluna recalled. Two other people, including Penaluna's girlfriend, were also hit. The shootings, in a city where sporadic but horrific street crime rattles its culture of progressive cool, sent Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on a mission: Next month, he will hold a public hearing on a proposed order to ban guns on city property, including at parks, sporting events and street fairs.

Frustrated by what he calls "an epidemic of violent yet preventable death," Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. will break ranks with other state officials today and call for an outright ban on private ownership of handguns.Curran acknowledges that his proposal is at best a long-term goal, but says he hopes that his 58-page report, "A Farewell to Arms," will spur public discussion that eventually will lead to such a ban.In the meantime, he says, he will push for more immediate changes in state and federal gun laws.

SEATTLE - The annual Northwest Folklife Festival is a throwback to hippie days, a mellow celebration of folk music, grilled salmon and sandals with socks in a city that considers laid-back a point of civic pride. So when Joshua Penaluna, 19, felt a sharp pain in his wrist as two men came at him through the crowd at the festival in May, he assumed he had broken a bone as he fell. "Then I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, he's been shot,' " Penaluna recalled. Two other people, including Penaluna's girlfriend, were also hit. The shootings, in a city where sporadic but horrific street crime rattles its culture of progressive cool, sent Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on a mission: Next month, he will hold a public hearing on a proposed order to ban guns on city property, including at parks, sporting events and street fairs.

TAKOMA PARK - This is a town where tie-dyed clothing and Birkenstocks never go out of fashion, a place where aging hippies and young vegetarians, potters and folk musicians, peaceniks and women's rights lawyers make their home. Yet even the free-spirited folks in this self-proclaimed "Berkeley of the East" are having a hard time pushing through one of the most popular of liberal causes: a handgun ban. More than 18 months have passed since anti-gun activists went door to door collecting signatures for a referendum to outlaw the possession and sale of handguns in Takoma Park.

WASHINGTON -- For years, Dick Heller lived across the street from a crime-ridden public housing project where the top drug dealer marked the close of business every morning at 2 o'clock by emptying his 9 mm pistol into the air. Tucked in bed below the windowsill of his brick rowhouse in Southeast Washington, Heller tried to assure himself that the brick walls would protect him as he slept.

LONDON -- One of the world's more stringent gun control laws is about to get a whole lot tougher.Yesterday, the British government announced plans to introduce a near-total handgun ban in response to the March 13 massacre in which a man carrying licensed hand guns killed 16 children and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.The ruling Conservatives proposed banning all handguns over .22 caliber. And even owners of .22 caliber pistols would be required to store and use their weapons at heavily secured gun clubs.

By William F. Zorzi Jr. and William F. Zorzi Jr.,SUN STAFF | March 1, 2000

More than half of likely Maryland voters favor banning the sale of handguns in the state, according to a poll released yesterday. A majority of voters also would prefer that Maryland's record budget surplus be put into "pressing priorities" such as education rather than be used for a tax cut, the poll found. The survey on legislative priorities was conducted last weekend -- halfway through the 90-day General Assembly session -- by Potomac Survey Research of Bethesda and was based on telephone interviews with 1,000 likely Maryland voters.

Thousands of citizens in Baltimore and other American cities have died in recent years in an epidemic of gun violence. The contagion is carried by a flood of weapons, legal and illegal, that presents a frustrating challenge to police, prosecutors and politicians attempting to calm the cities. Yesterday, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court significantly complicated that effort to control violence with a 5-4 decision that struck down a Washington, D.C., law that bans private ownership of handguns in that city.

Control criminals instead of the guns The Sun once again showed its lack of understanding about the issue of gun control in its editorial that supported Washington's ban on handgun ownership and urged the Supreme Court to uphold it ("The D.C. handgun ban," March 19). The Sun suggests that upholding the ban will reduce the amount of handgun violence in Washington. But just the opposite is the case. Since the Washington handgun ban was instituted, the rate of shootings, drug dealing and homicides in the city has increased.

It's often hard to know or predict how the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will vote on critical cases, but anyone concerned about the level of gun violence in America has to hope that a majority will uphold the reasonable restrictions on gun ownership that have long been in effect in Washington, D.C. Those restrictions - and a serious challenge to them - were the subject of a spirited debate before the court yesterday, with pointed questions directed...

WASHINGTON -- For years, Dick Heller lived across the street from a crime-ridden public housing project where the top drug dealer marked the close of business every morning at 2 o'clock by emptying his 9 mm pistol into the air. Tucked in bed below the windowsill of his brick rowhouse in Southeast Washington, Heller tried to assure himself that the brick walls would protect him as he slept.

CHICAGO -- It's not easy to do, but gun-control advocates in San Francisco have come up with an anti-firearms measure that embarrasses even some gun-control advocates. The red-faced ones may realize this one is not likely to work even if it is upheld in court, which it almost certainly will not be. But the pointlessness of the initiative didn't stop San Franciscans from approving it by a hefty majority. Proposition H outlaws the sale, manufacture, transfer and ownership of handguns and ammunition in the city.

TAKOMA PARK - This is a town where tie-dyed clothing and Birkenstocks never go out of fashion, a place where aging hippies and young vegetarians, potters and folk musicians, peaceniks and women's rights lawyers make their home. Yet even the free-spirited folks in this self-proclaimed "Berkeley of the East" are having a hard time pushing through one of the most popular of liberal causes: a handgun ban. More than 18 months have passed since anti-gun activists went door to door collecting signatures for a referendum to outlaw the possession and sale of handguns in Takoma Park.

Control criminals instead of the guns The Sun once again showed its lack of understanding about the issue of gun control in its editorial that supported Washington's ban on handgun ownership and urged the Supreme Court to uphold it ("The D.C. handgun ban," March 19). The Sun suggests that upholding the ban will reduce the amount of handgun violence in Washington. But just the opposite is the case. Since the Washington handgun ban was instituted, the rate of shootings, drug dealing and homicides in the city has increased.

In the fall of 1988, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. ventured into gun country in St. Mary's County with an unpopular message.Delivering a speech he would make countless times that fall, Curran tried to sell a mostly hostile audience on the state's ban on Saturday night special weapons, passed that year by the General Assembly but still needing ratification by the voters."

By William F. Zorzi Jr. and William F. Zorzi Jr.,SUN STAFF | March 1, 2000

More than half of likely Maryland voters favor banning the sale of handguns in the state, according to a poll released yesterday. A majority of voters also would prefer that Maryland's record budget surplus be put into "pressing priorities" such as education rather than be used for a tax cut, the poll found. The survey on legislative priorities was conducted last weekend -- halfway through the 90-day General Assembly session -- by Potomac Survey Research of Bethesda and was based on telephone interviews with 1,000 likely Maryland voters.

THROUGHOUT his four decades as an elected official, J. Joseph Curran Jr. has remained unafraid to take controversial stands. Witness his call this week for a ban on private handgun ownership to stem the nation's tide of violence.Vicious killing sprees in Littleton, Colo., Atlanta, Los Angeles and Fort Worth persuaded Maryland's three-term attorney general to seek drastic action. He'd like private handgun ownership restricted to law-enforcement officers, legitimate gun collectors and those who need guns for security reasons.